Month: January 2021

Day 5 – Feasting of John 5

Today our feast is going to cause us to mature if we can handle the truth. The whole chapter of John 5 is Jesus correcting people. He corrects the man at the pool of Bethesda saying, don’t sin anymore or somehow worse may happen to you (v.14); next He’s correcting the Jews on their unbelief and lack of acceptance of the Son of God. It’s not harsh but it is obvious.

People don’t like correction because they don’t understand it. If we’ve experienced correction as punishment, we fear correction because we think we’ve done something wrong so we are a bad person. Our poor perception of correction has caused us to miss out on the life that comes from correction. Hebrews 12:11 says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” The fruit of correction is peace and righteousness.

What correction do we need as the body of Christ? I would purpose we need the John 5:40 correction, “You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” Jesus corrects the Jews saying, you’ll go to others, you’ll even go to the scriptures, but you won’t come to Me. This is our issue as well. We corporately go to church, we go to conferences, we go to You Tube and Facebook, but we don’t come to Him that we may have life.

Revelation 3:19 – 4:2 of which John wrote that book as well says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.”

Today as we feast on God’s correction, He is inviting us to come to Him. He’s correcting us up, literally, saying come up here, come near to me. He’s not mad at us, He’s not disappointed with us, He’s not going to ground us, He’s correcting us so He can show us His heart, His nature, His ways, His truth, His love so we can have life, but we, I must come to Him if I’m going to live, if we’re going to know life abundantly. Come to Me, come to Me, I am Life says the Lord and if you come to Me, you will live, really live, come to Me.

Day 4 – Feasting On John 4

John 4:25-26 “The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

The future is a beautiful expression of hope anchored in the veil, knowing we are headed into better days when we are struggling. However, those struggles are to be temporary not permanent if we are to enjoy what is upon us now, rather than continually hoping for what is to come.

The abundant life is a life lived knowing that Jesus is speaking to you in now time about now things. John 4 shows us that we can get so focused on what’s coming that we cease to see what or who is standing right in front of us and speaking to us. The abundant life is living in the now, not the not yet or someday.

We as believers are long over due to take off the grave clothes of suffering, sadness, mourning, disappointment and despair. It is high time to realize our joy is not something coming, our Messiah is not someone coming again someday, He is alive today, He is living inside of us as believers through the Holy Spirit today. He is speaking to us today. Today is the day of salvation; today if you hear His voice; today is the day the Lord has made.

Once the woman in John 4 got out of the future coming into the man named Jesus right in front of her speaking to her today, she dropped her pot and proclaimed the good news with great joy. Today is a feast day for the kingdom of God is within you…Live NOW! This is really good news.

John 4:25-26 “The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Day 3 – Feasting On John 3

As I feast on the open book of the gospel of John, I am in awe of the parallels between this gospel and our current reality in the world. God’s word is truly living and active right now on January 3, 2021.

We are literally living in the days of Light coming into the world. Light means truth, exposure, opportunity to repent, to surrender, to confess, to come clean. This week we will continue to see the Light shine on situations we may or may not be familiar with, for when Light comes all can see.

Many people struggle with the word judgment, but judgement is good when it comes from God for like a Judge, judgements are decisions, verdicts, they finalize a matter. It’s exhausting to keep things open endlessly, we need conclusions to matters so we can move on. Light coming is judgments being rendered that we can see and hear.

What may surprise some people is how many times people could have come clean prior to public exposure but chose not to. The Lord is merciful and kind, He always gives chances to deal with us in private, but if we refuse He deals with us in public. Public exposure will bring the fear of the Lord.

All I can say today is here comes the Light (Truth) in a public way, and all will say, Yahweh, Yahweh! At least this is what John 3 has to say.

John 3:19-21 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

On December 27, 2020 the Lord spoke to me and said, “The first 21 days of 2021 are to be feast days. Feast on the open book of John for 21 days.” Little did I know January 6, 2021 is a Feast Day. If its God speaking we will hear an echo because His voice is powerful. January 6, 2021 we are going to be feasting!

Day 2 – Feasting On John 2

John 2 is all about feasting. It opens with a wedding feast and it ends with the Passover feast. Israel was not afraid of feasting, celebrating, rejoicing. This was not some small celebration these feasts would last for days. Everyone in the village would come and every Jew around the world would join in the feast of the Lord, one of them being the feast of Passover.

Feasting is a lost art in American culture. It’s as though we have a cultural spirit that doesn’t allow us to celebrate. The impression is we are arrogant, gluttonous, or somehow sinful if we are feasting. This is just one evidence of the religious spirit in our nation that God is going to remove. We don’t celebrate and we don’t want others to celebrate either. And to celebrate someone else’s victory is almost unheard of.

We have become so accustomed to being unhappy we forgot how to feast, how to celebrate, how to go over the top in the extravagance and abundance of God’s blessings. We have become a culture of critics because we’ve lost the ability to feast, to celebrate.

God is going to restore feasting, celebrating, enjoying life, other people and the Lord. In our feasting many will believe; in our feasting God will do signs and wonders; in our feasting we will cast off our grave clothes and learn to live abundantly and laugh hilariously. The Lord is inviting us to feast not to fast; to encourage not to criticize; to bless others not curse them. When we bless others we are actually expanding their territory and when we curse others we are limiting them. It’s no wonder that we are called to bless and not curse.

I see God releasing such a celebration, such a party, such a feast that is going to bring rejoicing like we have never known before. This is going to take a mindset shift because we are so accustomed to fasting but we are not accustomed to feasting.

John 2 opens with a wedding feast and closes with the feast of Passover. It is time to hear the prophetic word of Zechariah who said that fasting is going to be turned into feasting. I believe that day is upon us! Our feasting it’s going to cause people to believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord! It’s time to feast with the Lord and each other.

Zechariah 4:18 “Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’”

John 2:23 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.”

2021 the year of God Alone on the Throne. The first 21 days of this year the Lord has invited us to His banqueting table to feast on the open book called the gospel of John. Today is day one of our feast and each of us is going to partake of a dish on the table. I encourage you if you are joining this feast, don’t just eat from the dish I like, share with us in the comments below the dish you enjoyed as well, so we can feast on the variety of foods coming out of God’s word. Grab your fork and let’s dig in.

I could not get past the first couple verses of John 1 because Jesus is honey that satisfies my soul like no one else can. John immediately opens his gospel by saying in the beginning and then adds the Word, God, Being, Life, Light and darkness. The connection between John 1 and Genesis 1 are unmistakable.

Listen to John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Now hear Genesis 1:1-5 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

From go the darkness did not comprehend the Light. Is it any wonder when Light became flesh and blood and dwelt among us (John 1:14) on earth the darkness didn’t understand? All darkness knew is that it was separated from the Light. Darkness never has nor will it ever comprehend Light, it can’t because it was, is and always will be separated from Light.

Light is life! Light is love! Light is The Word! Light is God! and the darkness will never understand it, that is why we are called to crossover from darkness to Light, from death to Life. The two will never merge, that is why we have to choose a life of darkness or Light.

I have lived all in the darkness and I’ve lived all in the Light and I’ve tried to live with one foot in the one and one foot in the other. I can tell you this, I’ve made my decision and I’m never changing my mind, Jesus is the Light and I’m living in Him and He’s living in me, no turning back no turning back.

2021 the year of God Alone on the Throne of my heart and life. We all have to choose darkness or Light, I’ve made my choice, what do you choose?

I look forward to hearing what you tasted and saw in John 1 even as I’ve shared with you what I’m feasting on today.